Dragon Sr2 takes pole, sets fast lap at Beaverun

Photo
by Bob Barone
For
the second time in two races the Dragon Sr2 has set the
pole time for it’s National race. Saturday
morning’s damp weather proved to be the best of
the day and saw Bill Gendron’s Sr2 ahead of Bob
Gardner’s Stohr WF-1 for the FA/CSR/DSR/S2 race.
Sunday was much nicer with race temp’s in the
80’s and brilliant sunshine. Bob got by the
Dragon on lap 2 with a great inside move and led the
rest of the race, although the fast lap was set by Bill
by nearly .5 seconds on lap 27.
Next race will be the Watkins Glen National in July.
This will be a big race, with drivers from other parts
of the country, and DSR phenom Jean-Luc Liverato,
joining the NE drivers at the most exciting track in
the division.
SFRE Drivers score big at Devens National Tour

Photo
by Dave Hyman
Neil
Schelly’s FSP Subaru
After
a long winter of engine rebuilding and suspension
tuning Neil’s Subaru scored big this weekend with
one of the largest winning margins: 3.114 seconds!
Check out the new monster 17” wheels and sticky
tires! Big things ahead this year for Neil and his all
wheel drive wagon.

Photo
by Bob Barone
Road
Race Refugee
Bill Gendron brought the Dragon D Sports Racer to the
event, and even with a super tall first gear (78mph)
managed to set top time of the event both days. Do race
cars make good solo cars? What do you think?
Bill Goodale and Bob Barone had a great time hammering
on each other, especially on Sunday’s faster
course where they could “fly the wing” and
use their power advantage. Bill ended up with the win,
but Bob looked good after his 2 year layoff. Expect
good times from both of these drivers during 2008.

National
Champ shows the way
CM
saw 5 drivers with SFRE backgrounds hammering the
course and each other. Jim Garry, Ken Hurd, Stacy
Strout, Craig Carr and (all the way from Arizona) Mark
Huffman were all looking for the big prize, but Jim G,
current National Champion in CM, showed the way with
very smooth driving. His last run of 51.8 would have
covered the class by more than a second if not for one
of those pesky cones. K Hurd finished
2nd
while
Stacy Strout collected third position.

Missed
it by that much!
Reigning
National Champ Mike Shields couldn’t hold off
challenger Alex Shchipkov this weekend, but he looks
forward to defending his National win this Fall in
Topeka.
Mike
Steere debuted his updated Focus at this event. New
suspension parts, upgraded engine and transmission mean
big speed for this unusual EP entry. Expect big speed
from this car over the summer.

XP
Shootout
Kevin
Kirchoff was planning to run his Rx7 with the SFRE coil
over setup in ASP, but found a leaky rotor seal and
borrowed a ride from pal Bill Stone in XP for the Tour.
Both cars have similar suspension setups, but
Bill’s has the stouter motor allowed in XP. Even
though they were running DOT tires in this Prepared
class, both drivers had some slick runs.

Smooth,
Classic and…..Lavender?
Bob
Lang looked good with his TR6 this weekend. After a
couple of years of building it is back on the track for
2008. Unopposed this weekend, I expect Bob to be hard
to beat in the Northeast Division.

Photo
by M Chessick
Coolest
Driver at the Tour!
Mark
Chessick drove his new for 2008 Honda S2000 in E
modified, giving away up to 3000 cc of displacement,
but he had a secret weapon….when Sunday’s
temperatures went up to the BBQ range, he dropped on
the hardtop and turned on the AC for 3 cool runs!
Expect Mark to add HP to the great handling of his
slick tire S200 in the future.
Bob
Jordan was another driver who has been absent lately,
but came out for the Tour. His Rotax powered Zink is
still quick however and he had 6 good runs. Bob now
spends many hours on his Suzuki naked sportbike and is
looking for a new home for the Z19, so if you are
looking for a lot of speed on a budget, give him a
call.
Dragon Sets New Lap Record at NHIS

The
Front of Race Group 7 assembles in Turn 10
A
sunny, cool day (65 degrees) saw Race Group 7 take the
flag at about 03:15 PM with Bill Gendron and the Dragon
Sr2 starting the race gridded 3rd
(2nd
DSR).
A slow start got the field going with Bill Goldkind
(CSR), Tom Becker and Bill Gendron pulling away from
the field immediately. By lap 6, running nose to tail,
both of the leading DSR’s had run below the lap
record.

Charging
into Turn 3
Driving through traffic, the Dragon took the lead and
had a chance to run a few laps with clean air. This
resulted in a new lap record of 105.914 seconds.

Making
Time at Turn 10
Unfortunately,
a chain failure sidelined the car on lap 18, so we had
to settle for 3rd
place,
but the new record takes most of the sting away. All of
the off season updates worked well and the car
continues to be very easy to adjust, with no surprises.
We are looking forward to a great 2007 season and our
next National race at Beaverun on Father’s Day
Weekend.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!

Lots of air going through here!
To haul that new horsepower down before the next
decreasing radius corner there is also a new set of
12” diameter brakes with Wilwood 4 piston
calipers.

Expect Mike and Co-driver Bob Lang to be swift and
deadly in 2007!